A gradual return to normal? California will present its plan for the resumption of film and television filming next week. But Los Angeles, Covid-19's main home in the state, will have to wait, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday.
The studios have been deserted since California took containment measures to stem the spread of the pandemic in mid-March.
Los Angeles County Still Far Too Affected by Covid-19
The majority of the 58 counties of the state "will have the capacity" to organize the resumption of filming by implementing certain measures which will be detailed on Monday, said the governor.
But the county of Los Angeles, where Hollywood is located and which has nearly 900,000 jobs in the entertainment industry, is too affected by the Covid-19 to consider such a recovery immediately.
"Even today, the number of deaths recorded affects this county disproportionately," noted Governor Newsom, estimating that he would probably be several weeks behind the other areas.
No risk taking
In total, nearly 86,000 cases of Covid-19 and 3,485 deaths have been reported across California. Los Angeles County alone has nearly 40,000 cases and more than half of the deaths (1,926). "I don't want to give you the pill (...) We have an increase in the number of cases in the LA region and because of that we're going to be late," warned the governor's chief of staff, Ann O'Leary , during a videoconference meeting with officials from the entertainment industry.
The head of content of Netflix, who participated in this meeting, for his part estimated that "taking liberties with security" would have "terrible long-term effects".
Fear of a second wave
Ted Sarandos ruled that productions requiring only light crews, like documentaries, could resume more quickly, but that filming with crowd shots would require "a lot of security and significant logistics".
Netflix has already revived productions in certain countries, such as Iceland, Sweden and South Korea. According to director Ava DuVernay ( Selma ), the film crews should be divided into smaller “cells” whose presence on the sets would be alternated to reduce the risk of contagion.
As for the star of This Is Us , John Huertas, he stressed that the television series, filmed in Los Angeles, may not resume before January in the event that a "second wave" epidemic occurs this summer.
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- California
- Filming
- Culture
- Coronavirus
- Deconfinement